Tag: Pac-12 extinction

Do we realize what could soon happen in college sports?

Many aspects of college sports will change if the #Pac12 dies, but one stands out: That new #B1G football schedule will be gone.

The larger theater of conference realignment is creating many absurd scenarios and realities as we speak. The very real possibility that the Big Ten might expand to 20 schools if the Pac-12 dies is at the top of the list. The Big Ten might add Oregon, Washington, Stanford and California if the Pac-12 splinters and becomes extinct. That would be a seismic development in college sports, one year after USC and UCLA left for the Big Ten.

So many aspects of college sports would change, and in the course of time, we’re going to tackle those various subjects … but we can’t hit all of those topics in one shot. We have to do this one subject at a time.

In this piece, we focus on the specific matter of the Big Ten football schedule.

It will need to be thrown into the garbage bin. USC’s new conference will have to start fresh in constructing its new schedule.

Let’s walk through this tangled, dizzying and absurd process:

What George Kliavkoff never understood about the Pac-12 endgame

Kliavkoff didn’t seem to grasp something which should have been obvious: #Pac12 death would not affect all schools equally.

The Pac-12 CEO Group did not hire good commissioners, nor did it properly empower them to act swiftly and decisively to save the conference. To this extent, the CEOs are centrally responsible for the Pac-12’s existential crisis.

However, George Kliavkoff can’t be shielded from blame. He took this job knowing he had to secure a good media rights deal. It’s why he was hired. Here we are, and there’s no media rights deal, at least not a deal good enough to keep the conference alive.

Kliavkoff got a lot of things wrong, but at the heart of his failure is one central, catastrophic miscalculation which can’t remain ignored or brushed off to the side. That is the focus of this specific piece as “Pac-12 death watch” becomes a very real thing in college sports:

George Kliavkoff did not have a good job interview with the Pac-12 CEO Group

The Pac-12 has arrived at this perilous position for many reasons, but it all begins with one core problem. We’ll explain.

We don’t know exactly what was said in the room when the Pac-12 CEO Group interviewed George Kliavkoff for the job of Pac-12 commissioner a few years ago.

We don’t have a transcript of the dialogue between the Pac-12’s school chancellors and presidents and the people they interviewed to replace Larry Scott.

Yet, as the Pac-12 teeters on the brink of collapse, we can be very confident in saying this much: The job interview process did not go well. It wasn’t handled well. The Pac-12 CEO Group didn’t understand what kind of leader it needed, and George Kliavkoff didn’t fully grasp the dimensions of his situation.

People reading this might say, “But wait: George Kliavkoff took over the Pac-12 before USC and UCLA left for the Big Ten. No one could have anticipated they would leave.”

Narrowly, that might be true. However, the Pac-12 had suffered under Larry Scott. It was not in an advantageous position. Everyone knew it needed a better media rights deal. That’s why Kliavkoff was hired, regardless of whether USC stayed or left.

If you realize that Kliavkoff was supposed to be a dealmaker who got things done, we can look at the present moment and plainly say he hasn’t lived up to that standard. In this regard, he failed to grasp what was needed in the moment.

Let’s talk more about this as “Pac-12 death watch” intensifies:

Pac-12 still hasn’t landed a deal, but Apple is reportedly a player

We won’t make predictions regarding a #Pac12 deal, but reports indicate an Apple deal has been put before the presidents.

The Pac-12 has not finalized a media rights deal. (What? You thought the Pac-12 would move swiftly and get a deal done?) We’re still in a wait-and-see position. Meetings have been held. More meetings have been scheduled. It’s still just talk, not action. Skepticism is warranted until George Kliavkoff lands the plane and keeps the conference together … and alive.

We’re not offering any predictions. That is and has been a fool’s errand in the Pac-12 media space and in the world of realignment. Two weeks ago, it did not seem that Colorado was going to leave for the Big 12. Two weeks ago, it did not seem that the realignment chessboard was about to spit out several new movements and reshape the industry once again.

Everything changed quickly. That’s how this goes. Predictions are for fools.

However, we can note that ESPN’s Pete Thamel has reported that a potential deal involving Apple was presented to the Pac-12 presidents on Tuesday. The Pac-12 was always rumored to be pursuing a digital media rights deal, a streaming package to accompany a linear TV arrangement. This appears to be that attempt. No word has emerged if Amazon has also been part of serious, advanced talks about a Pac-12 deal.

Stay tuned:

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Trojans Wire discusses the fate of the Pac-12, the next moves in realignment

We talked about the fate of the #Pac12 and the new round of realignment moves with @MarkRogersTV.

Here we go again. We are about to experience another round of realignment. You can laugh at the Pac-12 Conference if you want. Many people are doing just that. However, if you like stability in college sports, the Pac-12’s failure has not given you want you want.

The Pac-12 could not secure its full (10-school) membership. As a result, the Big 12 — now at 13 schools for the 2024-2025 cycle — will need to add at least one more school, possibly three. That reality will create shifts in the conferences the Big 12 takes from.

The Pac-12 shrinking to nine schools for the 2024-2025 cycle means the conference will need to find a 10th school somewhere. That’s another spin of the realignment wheel. However, the Pac-12 (or is it Pac-9?) doesn’t even know if it will survive. If the Arizona schools — Arizona State and the University of Arizona — both bolt for the Big 12, the Pac-12 could die. If that scenario does come true, we could see superconferences, defined as conferences with 20 or more members. The Big Ten wouldn’t choose to take on added schools, but it would essentially need to, since the alternative would be the Big 12 or ACC taking those schools.

So much is in play, and we know big changes lie ahead, but we don’t know what the specific changes will be.

We talked about these topics and more with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football.

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How Oregon and Washington might have fooled George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12

Was @Ducks_Wire playing the “long con” the whole time with Kliavkoff and the #Pac12? Let’s talk. #GoDucks #B1G

If you have lived on this planet long enough, you probably know that what people or organizations say in public does not necessarily represent or reflect what they believe or truly want in private. This begins an exploration of the relationship Oregon and Washington have to the Pac-12 Conference.

Let’s start by saying that Oregon and Washington do not hold the cards in terms of moving to the Big Ten, and that the Big Ten still does have to want them. Moreover, if you asked me right now — Friday, July 28, 2023 — which current Pac-12 schools have the most direct path to the Big Ten, I would say Stanford and Cal more than the Ducks and Huskies. I learned a lot in July of 2022, when industry insiders noted how much more Stanford would bring to the Big Ten in terms of estimated value than Oregon.

However, even if Stanford might have a more direct path to the Big Ten if the Pac-12 dies and splinters, Oregon and Washington might still be optimistic they can go to the Big Ten. We’ll explain that point and a lot more in this exploration of three-dimensional chess … and why the Pac-12, as usual, is very bad at playing it.

Let’s take a look:

Latest episode of Pac-12 humiliation might be the worst … and most costly

The #Pac12 knows how to humiliate itself, but this Colorado mess is far worse than you already knew. We’ll explain.

You know by now that Colorado has voted to return to the Big 12 Conference, and that the Big 12 Conference has approved of the move. The Big 12 released a statement from Brett Yormark about Colorado. It didn’t have to say much, and it didn’t. Yormark, who has completely outmaneuvered George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12, very simply said this about the Buffaloes: “They’re back.”

It was the confident, minimalist statement of a man who knows he is cleaning the Pac-12’s clock.

It’s a mismatch. A wipeout. A rout.

We know how much the Pac-12 has embarrassed itself under Larry Scott. Now George Kliavkoff is being humiliated on the big stage. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 CEO Group continues to show a complete inability to manage situations, handle its commissioners, and steer negotiations toward successful conclusions. This happened under Scott, and it’s happening again.

You know the Pac-12 never misses an opportunity to step on a rake and embarrass itself, but you don’t know a number of details which make this latest debacle that much more remarkable and appalling.

With help from our friends at Buffaloes Wire — specifically this very informative and helpful article — we’ll unpack just how bad this latest Pac-12 embarrassment truly is.

It could be the embarrassment which leads to the extinction of the conference:

Media reaction to Colorado returning to Big 12 and leaving Pac-12

From Desmond Howard to Stewart Mandel to Jon Wilner to @BuffaloesWire, we sample media reactions to Colorado’s #Big12 move:

The Colorado Buffaloes are moving to the Big 12. The Big 12 has approved of Colorado’s return to the conference. Colorado’s board of regents voted to leave the Pac-12 and join the Big 12 on Thursday afternoon.

Our friends at Buffaloes Wire have the details:

“By a unanimous vote of 9-0, the University of Colorado board of regents approved the school’s decision to leave the Pac-12 and rejoin the Big 12 ahead of the 2024-25 academic year.

“The board met on Thursday afternoon and university president Todd Saliman opened with a statement confirming Colorado’s move. ‘We think the time has come to change conferences,’ Saliman said.”

Fans are certainly fascinated by all of this, but we want to take a little time to give you a sampling of the media coverage of this huge story (including from us, as well as Buffaloes Wire, whom you should follow for complete Colorado coverage).

Here’s what some national commentators, writers, reporters, bloggers, and podcasters have said about this potent, explosive development in the world of college sports: